The Note: 80% of Gang Members Can't Be Wrong
— -- WASHINGTON, Mar. 19
Yet another manifestation of the early, intense start of the presidential campaign -- as well as of the white-hot politico-media obsession with the Iraq war and the US attorney imbroglio: 398 members of the Gang of 500 showed up on Sunday at Lauriol Plaza for the weekly brunch.
While not a scientific survey by any means (but perhaps more meaningful than a CNN Internet question of the day) there was better than 80% agreement on all the key points:
1. Attorney General Gonzales is a dead man walking; he will "resign" rather than be fired in the next 8 ½ days; and/but Josh Bolten and Don Evans are under no illusion that throwing the AG from the train will end the problem (his departure will only put more blood in the water).
2. The White House will not -- just this once -- follow the Washington Post ed board's advice in selecting a replacement for Gonzales.
3. The worst development for the White House in the last 48 hours was Bob Novak's weekend column, which suggested that the always-gurgling-beneath-the-surface tension between Chuck Schumer (Senior Senator from Brooklyn) and Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Hades) is blowing sky-high over rivalry on the US attorney matter, which will create the kind of market-driven competition Republicans normally love, but, in this case, will hate. LINK
4. Karl Rove and George W. Bush (and Slayne Waiter) well remember the fishing expedition that occurred when Rove got lured into going under oath in public in front of the Texas legislature, and they can't imagine letting that happen again in the DC/global context.
5. Heaven will need to help Hillary Clinton and/or John McCain if they are not the gross cash leaders in their respective party first-quarter fundraising derbies.
6. Every one of the Big 6 has the potential to be the big money story of the quarter.
7. It is possible that every one of the Big 3 Democrats will outraise every one of the Big 3 Republican candidates, which will cause the Old Media to go ga-ga-ga.
8. The only one of the Big 6 who appears to have the potential to be a first-quarter break-through candidate in terms of web fundraising is Senator Obama.
9. When John Fund feels so inclined, he can be a princemaker; see his must-read weekend tête-à-tête with a swaggering Fred Thompson. LINK
10. Having Weaver/Salter/McKinnon/Dennehy/Wiles/Duprey staff at one townhall meeting might be overkill, but McCain still owns the genre; interesting things might happen when Romney and Giuliani start taking come-one-come-all questions in the Granite State.
The Department of Justice is expected to release more emails today, perhaps detailing further DOJ/White House coordination on the US Attorneys matter. Whether or not a bombshell exists is TBD, as is Gonzales' schedule. The timing is also up in the air, but get ready to read that PDF file!!
The bigger moment probably comes tomorrow, though, when the White House explains what level of cooperation it intends to provide.
President makes a statement on the 4th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq in the Roosevelt Room at 11:30 am ET. The President later gives 3:15 pm ET remarks to the University of Florida's 2006 NCAA championship football team on the South Lawn of the White House.
The U.S. Senate meets at 2 pm ET to consider the "Preserving United States Attorney Independence Act of 2007."
Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) campaigns at a 1:45 pm ET event at Benedict College in Columbia, SC.
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) attends a 5:30 pm ET fundraiser at the Farmers Public Market Building in Oklahoma City, OK.
Sen. McCain begins his day in Nashua, NH where he will tour Buckingham Place -- a 20-unit apartment building dedicated to serving homeless veterans. McCain also participates in the dedication of a new Veterans' Home in Nashua. Then, at 6:00 pm ET, McCain attends a fundraising reception in Philadelphia, PA. (The fundraiser is closed, but McCain will gaggle with reporters.)
Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) plans to raise coin in Philadelphia, PA too.
Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) attends a 6:00 pm ET fundraising reception at Sonsie Restaurant in Boston, MA.
Sen. Sam Brownback is in New Hampshire today where he will do a 9:00 am ET interview with WMUR, attend a 10:30 am ET economic policy forum in Nashua, NH, and lunch with religious leaders and activists at noon ET in Manchester, NH.
Gov. Mike Huckabee appears on MSNBC at approximately 11:10 am ET as part of that networks coverage of the four year anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war.
Political strategist Mark McKinnon and ABC News' Political Director Mark Halperin moderate a discussion on the 2008 Democratic presidential campaign with senior advisers from the Clinton, Obama, and Edwards campaigns at Harvard University's Institute for Politics in Cambridge, MA at 6:00 pm ET. Participants include Clinton adviser Mark Penn, Obama guy David Axelrod, and the pan-national Jonathan Prince of the Edwards campaign.
MoveOn.org plans to organize more than 1,000 candlelight vigils across the country outside Congressional district offices and other public areas in commemoration of the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war. The anti-war group Military Families Speak Out holds a 10:30 am ET news conference marking the occasion at the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC.
See below for the week ahead in politics.
Politics of prosecutorial independence:Congressional Democrats want to maximize political gain over the controversy swirling around the firing of the eight US Attorneys by asking Administration officials --including Karl Rove -- for an explanation of what President Bush knew about the impending changes and whether he "was aware of the changes, gave his okay, or was briefed on them and didn't raise objections," reports Politico's Mike Allen. LINK
Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Patrick Leahy insisted that Karl Rove and other top Bush aides testify publicly and under oath about the dismissal of federal prosecutors, "setting up a confrontation between Congress and the White House, which has said it is unlikely to agree to such a demand," writes Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times in an ahead-of-the-curve must read. LINK
More Stolberg: "Dan Bartlett, counselor to Mr. Bush, has said it is 'highly unlikely' that the president would waive executive privilege to allow his top aides to testify publicly. One Republican strategist close to the White House, speaking on the condition of anonymity so as not to appear to be representing the administration, said: 'No president is going to let their senior staff assistant to the president go testify. Forget that. They might agree to do an informal interview, but they'll never testify.'"
